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Here at Rae’s Cafe, we can come up with countless reasons to drink coffee —namely because we have endless coffee products that are a great addition to any active lifestyle. But there are reasons beyond mere enjoyment and flavor, as many different studies are constantly showing. Here are five great reasons that adding a cup of coffee to your day is not only a pleasure, it’s good for you!

Coffee is a great source of antioxidants!
According to a 2005 study, Americans get more of their antioxidants from coffee than from any other dietary source — nothing else even comes close. The study also found that while many fruits and vegetables are high in antioxidants, the human body seems to most readily absorb those found in coffee. Antioxidants are substances that help prevent the damaging effects of oxidation on cells throughout the body — so they are always a good thing!

One sniff = less stressIn addition to helping people to wake up each morning, simply the smell of coffee has been found to make people feel less stressed! Researchers at the Seoul National University examined the brains of rats who were stressed with sleep deprivation, and found that the rats that were exposed to coffee aroma experienced changes in the brain proteins tied to that stress. So next time you’ve had a sleepless night, a cup of coffee is definitely the answer!

Coffee can help protect the liverA 2006 study (which included 125,000 people over 22 years) found that people who drink at least one cup of coffee a day are 20% less likely to develop cirrhosis of the liver (an autoimmune disease caused by excessive alcohol consumption that could lead to liver failure and cancer). Similar studies have also shown that coffee can help prevent people from developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). So whether you are a whiskey connoisseur or a teetotaler, coffee can help protect your liver.

Coffee can help make you happier!A National Institute of Health study revealed that people who drink four or more cups of coffee per day were about 10% less likely to be depressed than those who had never touched the stuff. The study author, Honglei Chen, MD, PhD, stated that the reason coffee makes you feel good is thought to be because of those trusty antioxidants.

Coffee could help protect you from skin cancer.
A study at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School (which followed 112,897 men and women over a 20-year period) found that women who drink three or more cups of coffee a day are much less likely to develop skin cancer than those who don’t.

Ganoderma lucidum is a key ingredient in the Organo’s line of products that compliments the healthy lifestyle that is at the core of Rae’s way of life. At Organo, they use only the finest Ganoderma lucidum, creating a flavorless, invisible powder that adds amazing properties to everything from coffee and tea to personal care products.

Here are some facts about the incredible history of this truly incredible mushroom:

Ganoderma lucidum goes by many names. It is also known as the “Lingzhi” mushroom and the “Reishi” mushroom. The Chinese name, Lingzhi, means “spiritual potency”, while the Japanese name, Reishi, translates as “King of herbs.”The Vietnamese name for the Ganoderma mushroom, “linh chi,”literally means “supernatural mushroom.”

The botanical name, Ganoderma, derives from the Greek words ganos, which means, “shining”, and derma, which means, “skin”. This refers to the shiny exterior of the mushroom’s cap. The word Lucidum is also Latin for “shining.”

Ganoderma lucidum has a long and prestigious history — and has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for over 2,000 years, making it one of the oldest mushrooms known to have been used medicinally.

Shi-Jean Lee —the most renowned doctor of the Ming Dynasty —strongly endorsed the effectiveness of Ganoderma in his renowned book Great Pharmacopoeia(Ban Chao Gang Moo). In it, he wrote, “long-term taking of Ganoderma will build a strong, healthy body and assure a long life.”

The proliferation of Ganoderma lucidum images in art began in 1400 AD, and they are often associated with Taoism. However, the mentions of the mushroom soon extended beyond religion.

The Ganoderma or “Lingzhi” mushroom was often mentioned in ancient Chinese texts such as medicinal and herbology books, and was featured in much artwork, including wood block prints in early mycology (the study of fungi) history books.

The first book wholly devoted to the description of herbs and their medicinal value was Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing, written in the Eastern Han dynasty of China (25-220 AD). This book is also known as Classic of the Materia Medicaor Shen-nong’s Herbal Classics. It describes botanical, zoological, and mineral substances, and was composed in the second century under the pseudonym of Shen-nong (“the holy farmer”). The book, which has been continually updated and extended, describes the beneficial effects of several mushrooms with a reference to the medicinal mushroom Gandoerma lucidum. [1]

Ganoderma lucidum is a potent source of antioxidants. The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicinesays it contains one of the highest concentrations of antioxidants in any food.

Today is Small Business Saturday and in honor, Rae’s Cafe is giving YOU up to 40% off our line of gourmet coffees and teas! We’re also doing FREE shipping on orders over $50, just use coupon code: SHIP50. If you have any questions, please contact me through email or my business number on website. Have a wonderful holiday weekend!!!

It’s official — gone are the days of people thinking of coffee consumption as a “vice.” Recent scientific findings indicate that coffee can help you improve your performance at the gym! According to a recent study, those who enjoyed a cup of coffee prior to their workout burned more calories than those who didn’t.

The Spanish study, which was published in theInternational Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, found that trained athletes who took in caffeine pre-exercise burned about 15% more calories for three hours post-exercise, compared to those who ingested a placebo.

So just how much caffeine does it take to up one’s gym performance? The dose that triggered the effect was 4.5 mg of caffeine per kilogram of body weight. For a 150-pound woman, that’s roughly 300mg of caffeine, the amount in about 12 ounces of brewed coffee, a quantity many people are already sipping each morning. The British Coffee Association was quick to support this pro-caffeine and exercise study, stating that “about two cups an hour prior to working out improves endurance will help you perform for 30% longer.”

This isn’t the first study that has demonstrated the positive effects of caffeine, which has been shown to help increase a person’s heart-rate, circulation and mental alertness— all positive things in a fitness environment.

So, why not make this new study your new motivation to hit the gym, take that walk around the lake, go on that bike ride or make it to that yoga class? Just whip up a 12 ounce cup of Rae’s Gourmet Black Coffee before you head out to really maximize your exercise performance.

We’ve written before about some of the amazing health benefits of green tea — it can help with cardiovascular health, lower blood pressure, boost the immune system, promote longevity, fight against aging, improve brain function and concentration, and even help to ease anxiety. A recent study has also shown that green tea appears to boost the activity of DNA repair enzymes.

Researchers have long reported health benefits in green tea drinkers, but for this new study, Iris Benzie and her colleagues at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University monitored the activity of DNA repair enzymes in lymphocytes shortly after people drank a cup of green tea, and again after study participants had been drinking two cups of green tea each day for a week.

The team found that an enzyme (known as “hOGG1”) which is critical for fixing DNA damage from oxidation, and another enzyme that protects against such damage, were more active after the 16 study participants drank tea compared to when they drank just water.

The team also found 30 percent less DNA damage in lymphocytes 60 minutes after participants had drunk a cup of tea. According to Benzie, the finding “opens up a whole new avenue to look at the molecular mechanisms”of green tea’s effect on cells.

While only a preliminary study, these new findings again reveal that green tea is definitely beneficial, and there’s science to prove it. Thankfully, we love Organo’s Organic Green Tea so much, we don’t need science to tell us to drink more — but the data sure does help!

Organo Gold has strong ties to China, not least because it is home to the miraculous Ganoderma mushroom that lies at the heart of all of our products. We thought we’d revisit the remarkable history of the remarkable mushroom that is Ganoderma lucidum.

The History of Ganoderma

For as many as 4,000 years, Ganoderma Lucidum has been recognized by practitioners of traditional Asian medicine as the highest ranked of all herbs found in the Chinese pharmacopoeia.

The Chinese name for Ganoderma, Lingzhi, means “spiritual potency,” while the Japanese name, Reishi, can be translated as as the “King of Herbs.”

Shi-Jean Lee — the most renowned doctor of the Ming Dynasty — strongly endorsed the effectiveness of Ganoderma in his famous book Great Pharmacopoeia[Ban Chao Gang Moo]. In it, he wrote that “long-term taking of Ganoderma will build a strong, healthy body and assure a long life.”

Ganoderma mushrooms are unique in that they grow on wood, mostly out of large trees. At Organo Gold, they source only the finest quality organic Ganoderma, grown undisturbed on maple logs high in the Wuyi Mountains of China’s Fuxhou region.

Our natural log harvested Ganoderma is superior to plastic bag harvested Ganoderma. Some companies attempt to cut corners and use plastic bags to harvest their Ganoderma, but this means the precious spores cannot effectively propagate, which makes the end product much less potent.

Once our mushrooms are harvested from the maple logs, they are then processed at one of the largest Ganoderma facilities in the world. Here, using the latest technologies and only natural processes, our agricultural and food scientists gently dry, sterilize and process the mushrooms, transforming the tough, woody caps into a fine powder.

That fine, flavorless powder is then added to the entire range of Organo Gold products, from coffee and tea to supplements and even our soap, body lotion and toothpaste.

It’s our privilege and pleasure at Rae’s Cafe to bring this ancient treasure to the Western world, and it’s such an honor to visit the land where the wonders of Ganoderma were first discovered.

Peachtree Street is, of course, the main street of Atlanta, and many are familiar with the expression “She’s a Georgia peach,” — referring to the fruit for which the state of Georgia has become so renowned.

In honor of its southern roots, this iced tea is best served in a Mason jar, on a porch, with nothing but Georgia on one’s mind.

It’s easy to tell when people start using Rae’s Premium G3 Beauty Soap — they generally cannot stop talking about soap! And sure, we realize that with its amazing moisturizing formula — packed with goodness such as grape seed oil, Ganoderma lucidum and antioxidant-boosting glutathione — this is certainly more than just your average bar of soap.

But there’s actually a lot more to a humble bar of soap than meets the eye. So, let’s take a look at some fun and interesting facts about the history of soap:

The earliest recorded evidence of the production of soap-like materials dates back to around 2800 BC in ancient Babylon. A formula for a soap-like substance, consisting of water, alkali, and cassia oil, was found written on a Babylonian clay tablet that dates back to around 2200 BC.

The ancient Egyptians are believed to have bathed regularly and used the combination of animal and plant oils with alkaline salt to produce a soap-like substance.

Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder wrote of the Phoenicians using soap as early as 600 B.C.

Early soaps were generally used for cleaning clothes and for curing animal hides.

It was the Romans who are thought to have first begun using soap on their bodies as part of bathing, and thus spread their soap-making skills across Europe.

By the eight century, soap was common in France, Italy, and Spain, but the rest of Europe rarely used it until the 17th century.

Soap production began in England around the end of the 12th century. Soap-manufacturers had to pay a heavy tax on all the soap they made.

Early soap makers simply boiled a mixture of wood ash and animal fat. A foam substance formed at the top of the pot, and when cooled, it hardened into soap.

Around 1790, French chemist Nicolas Leblanc patented a method of making lye from an ordinary salt, replacing the wood ash as an element of soap. Another French chemist, Eugene-Michel Chevreul, discovered the chemistry behind the relationship of glycerin and fatty acids and put the soap-forming process (called in English saponification) into concrete chemical terms in 1823.

Soap was manufactured with industrial processes by the end of the 19th century, though people in rural areas continued to make their own soap at home. By 1890, many different types of soap were offered by the five major companies that emerged in the soap industry, these being, Colgate, Morse Taylor, Albert, Pears, and Bailey.

One of the most famous “greenies” of all time, the inimitable Kermit the Frog, was mistaken when he said, “It’s not easy being green.” At Organo Gold, we are proud of our green concepts and products. And we’re not just talking about our refreshing organic green tea here, either!

We take our environmental impact very seriously. And we also take the quality of our ingredients, and the quality of our renowned products, very seriously. Especially when Rae’s Cafe has so many products that are consumed with the customer’s well being in mind — such as our:

All of these products are certified organic by Ecocert, the global certification body for sustainable development. This means, according to the Ecocert Canada standards, that they are made with a minimum of 70-95% of organic ingredients.

Often times, particularly with sensitive ingredients such as green tea and Ganoderma, cheaper, non-organic products use inferior ingredients that are farmed and harvested without Organo Gold’s strict standards. Which means it’s possible for toxic chemicals to leech into the plants or mushrooms. Which really flies in the face of taking the positive step to take nutritional supplements or drink antioxidant-rich organic green tea.

On March 15, 1493, Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage to the New World. The 2 C’s could be considered to be Christopher Columbus, the explorer renowned for “discovering” North America and many other places in the New World. But, according to many, there are two other significant C’s in America — Coffee and Chocolate!

And the two are linked by more than just alliteration. When Christopher Columbus first sailed that ocean blue (as the rhyme goes) in 1492, he traveled to the so-called New World at the behest of the Queen of Spain. And two of the precious items he brought back to Europe? You guessed it: coffee and cacao beans.

Here’s a lowdown on some of the history that links Christopher Columbus with two of the Americas’ favorite treats — coffee and chocolate:

The introduction of coffee beans to the Americas is often attributed to Columbus, as it is thought that he carried coffee beans on one of his voyages to the New World.

Columbus is also often credited with bringing chocolate, by way of cacao beans, back to Europe and then on to the rest of the world.

Columbus is believed to have “discovered” cocoa beans in around 1502, when he and his crew appropriated the cargo of a native Mayan trading ship, near what is now known as Honduras.

Apparently Columbus assumed that the beans were some kind of almond. But, sensing the value placed upon these mysterious legumes, he took them.

So, what lesson can we take from this? Well, one thing’s for sure. We’d like to thank Columbus for that initial transportation of the magical beans behind coffee and chocolate. We guess we have him to thank, in a round-about way, for one of our favorite products — the Cafe Mocha. And we can bet he would have been a big fan of one of the best — the BrewKup™ in Chocolate Almond.